E-Mail

     This time in an election year, a presidential election year especially, your inbox like mine is stuffed with pleas for donations.  I usually delete most of them but read a scattered few.  The text is usually so ludicrous and pleading as to bring tears of laughter to my eyes.  Unless you can send me only a few more dollars by midnight tonight all hope of my election is gone.  My opponent is spending millions in hope of retaining his position as the Republican City Dog Catcher.  Please chip in right away or all is lost.  Usually, I'm a sympathetic person but not with something so obviously not true.

     What I consider even worse is a plea to support some worthy cause or other.  Sign if you support the eradication of wood ticks in state forests.  They are so grateful to have your name on the sucker list, they pop up another page where you check off how much you are sending.  They always forget to make a check box for nothing dollars.  But they always follow up with another letter asking you to betray your friends by making sure they get on the list too.

     I do have to admit that I have sent some money, nothing very much since my only income is from Social Security, but all I truthfully could afford.  But instead of money, I helped my choice, Bernie Sanders, by sending numerous letters to editors to help fill the venues where he chose to speak. Every e-mail I sent carried the admonition in Spanish -- Vamonos y votar por Bernie Sanders --  Now it's been changed to -- Vamonos y por Hillary Clinton --.  Either Bernie or Hillary will be great presidents.  And maybe take care of the wood tick plaque in forests that Republicans say
Obama won't do anything about. 






 

Pets for Sale

     Yesterday I wrote about little animals and I started remembering the various pets who've owned me over the years and the circumstances that brought me into their life.  The only time I was refused by a shelter was because we lived in an apartment, wanted a little dog but didn't have a fenced back yard.  I thought it unreasonable since millions of dogs live in apartments all over the country.  When we acquired a house, we had two permanent dogs, a cat and many transitory animals who simply turned up on our porches with no ID other than sad eyes.

     The littlest dog was a miniature poodle who we found wandering on a road.  My wife jumped out and picked him up.  He was very old with many missing teeth and didn't see very well.  He didn't have a collar or tags.  We took him home, fed him because he hadn't eaten in some time, cleaned him up and he joined our family.  We always thought he was simply put out to die when he became too much trouble.  Always unbelievable to me that people can be so callous and cruel.

     Our biggest dog was a Rottweiler/Doberman.  She was supposed to be a purebred Rottweiler  but a horny Doberman never let a six foot high fence stop him from love.  The owner managed to give away all but one.  So we took her in along with our Rat Terrier, Krypto and Oscar, our Dachshund.
We didn't realize how fast she was growing until she could reach the back of a kitchen cabinet.  
Unfortunately that was where I stored my false teeth. Was is the word here.  She simply stood up and ate them.  We did find numerous plastic fragments where she slept.  She is the reason I never open my mouth for a picture.  We lost our home and moved to a tent in the woods so we had to broken heartedly part with her and Krypto.  Oscar was my wife's dog and she refused to part with him.  So he came along with us.

     I just realized this is turning into a serial story.  One animal starts me thinking of another.  I remember Blue, a Siamese cat that sat across from me every night at dinner and told me the day's events, then came the ferret that always got his head stuck in unlikely places.  Actually I reed to take
a break and write about other things for awhile.  I'm steadily getting pictures from my present wife, ex-girlfriends, ex-wives, etc.  When I get enough I will post them with a note about each. 

    

Little Animals

     As promised, tonight is about small animals.  When I was a little boy, we lived in a very rural setting so there were always animals around like domestic dogs and cats as well as orphan wild animals like rabbits, skunks or raccoons.  Usually we just saved their lives, kept them fed and safe until they were big enough to let go.  They would hang around for awhile and eventually following the call of nature go looking for a mate.  An idyllic place and time to grow up.

     There was only one vet in the area but no one every called him for anything except for a sick, pregnant or injured cow or horse.  I suppose he treated dogs or cats for sickness or injury.  No one had much money in those times and the solution to most injuries was to "be put out of their misery"  as it was euphemistically called.  I remember crying as this was done with my dog when he was hit by a car, asking why they don't have animal doctors for dogs too.  When I grew up, my question was answered emphatically.

     My wife and I had two little preschool girls.  They had become attached to a cat that had turned up at our door one day looking for a home.  One night when returning home, we heard a pitiful mewling coming from our back door.  She had evidently been run over by a car and had drug herself home from an unknown distance.  The girls were crying as I had as a child, asking why we  couldn't call a pet doctor.  I decided we could and got the phone book. The vet was a young man just starting out  so we went to his office around midnight with Kitty wrapped in a blanket.  He had a deal with the town doctor to use his X-ray machine so we went there next.  Upshot, she a broken back leg and a broken pelvis.  He gave her a pain shot and a sedative and agreed to operate first thing in the morning.  We went home with two very sleepy and happy little girls.

     The next day he operated successfully and after a few days she came home with a metal brace around her pelvis, a plaster cast on her extended back leg, a mile of adhesive tape and two prescriptions for antibiotics and pain.  The two girls with some help from their parents tended to her dutifully for the months it took for her to heal.  Finally she was back on her feet and as cats will, immediately got pregnant.  The birth problem and the caesarian section is a story for another time. 

     What I intended to tell was how the Humane Society said we weren't suitable to adopt an unwanted puppy.  I've adopted three children with no problem but a puppy from the pound was a no-no.  We finally bought a dachshund puppy in a Walmart parking lot who we loved for twelve great years.  What these shelter animals need more than any other criteria is someone who loves them and allows them to love you back. 

Right to Choose

     Another victory in the achievement of something I wrote about and worked at for a long time.  I signed so many petitions and wrote so many letters regarding a woman's right to choose not to carry a clump of cells.  All the Christian Right clings so tenaciously to the precepts they think is in the Bible but really isn't.  Actually they always make fools of themselves when they try to argue rationally.  The simple truth is they always devolve into emotion rather than reason.  At least we are getting to a Supreme Court that follows reason rather than fantasy.

     Over forty years ago, I had a job applicant tell me she was gay even though it was not anything I intended to ask about.  That long ago I was kind of a smartass and I commented "so what do you want me to do about it;  give you a medal; kick your ass; or give you a job?  She and her companion chose jobs and I was glad of it. I have a friend on Facebook still after all these years.  The shooting in Orlando affected me deeply as I have so many relatives and friends that follow that lifestyle.  I was very moved that so many straight people stepped up and gave blood and did all they could, not seeing the victims as anything but fellow Americans. There is hope for us yet.

      More people need to see abused and abandoned small animals.  I plan to write about this tomorrow.  We see so many pictures of dogs and cats that need love and a home.  Unfortunately, the process of taking them home is only a little more difficult than adopting a child.  Why?  See tomorrow.

      


    

Bernie's Band

     Today I read that Hillary Clinton's campaign is going to adopt a 50-state strategy by leaving in place her general election staffs and going after down-ballot positions.  Other than originally from Howard Dean, I wonder where they got the idea this year.  Maybe from Mr. Sanders who has over 6,000 volunteers already committed to do exactly that.

     These are young, enthusiastic men and women who are going to be the leaders of our future generations.  As Bob Dylan wrote  "come senators, congressmen please heed the call,  don't stand in the doorway, don't block up the hall for he that gets hurt is he who has stalled, the times they are a-changin'."  Racism and bigotry are not the province youth.  Republicans and Donald Trump are the last gasps of a dying breed.  They need to contact Dr. Kevorkian to end their misery.

     Hillary needs to confer with her campaign people to listen before they start on a project that is already up and running.  Hopefully she is smart enough to use her own brain to get where she going;  to be the second democratic president in a long line of future democratic leaders.  Clinton, Sanders, Warren, Feinstein, Franken, etc. etc. etc.
    

Distractions

     The media is having a difficult time in the last week deciding what and how to cover it.  Too much has happened to keep on an agenda consistent with spinning in one direction.  Only Fox News has kept to the mantra;  Republicans good, Democrats bad.

      For everything else they don't really know from day to day.  First of all, 49 gay people die in  a massacre, which way to go about it?  They have always gone against homo's but now there is too much sympathy for them  to risk it.

     The 2016 primaries are over, both Democrats got what each wanted in the first place.  Bernie set off a national revolution movement and Hillary got nominated for president.  Now how can the media set them against each other.  It just wont fly now with the two of them working together for the November elections.

      But overreaching everything, there is always Donald Trump.  Always good for a laugh but little else.  How can they write against Republicans no matter how stupid they get supporting their presidential choice.  It's amazing the contortions they go through trying to support him when every day finds him with a new reason he should be in jail rather than sitting in his penthouse suite.

     I just hope I don't run out of popcorn or beer before 2017.  This is starting to look like a marathon
television show, comedy and soap opera combined.


    

Guns

    So much on the news lately has concerned guns and laws pro and con.  Having grown up in rural Texas, guns were just there and no one thought about them very much.  When I was very young we hunted and ate what we killed;  wild rabbits, doves, squirrels and wild turkeys.  I once went on a deer hunt and everyone along teased me forever more because I thought a deer in my sights was too beautiful an animal to kill and I just couldn't pull the trigger.  It was my last and only deer hunt.

     Although nearly everyone I knew seldom went hunting, most had guns around.  I don't think hardly anyone could articulate a reason for having them, they were just there.  I once owned a rifle I won in a raffle at a bar.  I probably owned it for at least five years without ever firing it.  I think I probably gave it away;  I really don't remember what happened to it.

     Since I was never in the armed forces having contracted Polio when I was four years old and had after-effects that left me rated 4-F when America still had a draft for service.  I was too young for Korea, too disabled for Viet Nam, too old for wars since then.  So I haven't had any formal training in firearms whatever. 

     The last gun I owned came to me from a neighbor in an apartment complex where I lived with my very young son.  Coming home one day from work, this neighbor asked if I wanted to buy a gun.  He explained he wanted to buy a smaller caliber gun for target shooting as the 357 Magnum I was being offered was just too expensive on bullets.  Since this was 1980, he wanted just $50.00 for the gun along with a box of shells. Checking my briefcase, I had exactly that amount so the deal was concluded.  The gun and bullets went into the briefcase and the money went into his pocket.
 
     As fate would have it, I was picking up my son from a baby sitter.  I brought my briefcase along with my checkbook to pay her.  People at her apartment told me of a fight earlier over a stolen bottle of vodka and how a man threatened to come back later and get even.  I was scared and since I had the gun, inserted five shells and had just closed the cylinder as the back door burst open and a man entered firing a pistol at me.  Luckily he missed as I instinctively returned fire hitting him twice in his torso causing him to fall down.  He was still attempting to shoot from the floor when my next two shots hit his head spattering brains all over the kitchen.  All this occurred within a few seconds without any conscious thought.  A grand jury refused to indict calling it justified homicides.

     Even today after all these years, I still haven't gotten over killing another human being.  A gun owner can construct any scenario they want but until it really happens, no one knows what they will do.  I don't think guns should be banned but there need to be some restrictions.  And I think every gun owner needs to spend some time in the emergency ward of any major hospital.